Method of making wire-glass.



O. J. JUNGERS.

METHOD OF MAKING WIRE GLASS.

APPLICATION IILED MAY 27, 1909.

1,062,013; Patented May 20, 1913.

2 SHEETS SHEET 1.

0. J. JUNGERS. METHOD OF MAKING WIRE GLASS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 27, 1909.

I 1,062,01 3. Pa ented May 20, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

CLEMENT J. JUNGERS, or srannron, rumors.

METHOD or MAKING Wren-stasis Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 20, 1913,

Application filed May 27, 1909. Serial No. 498,648,

To all'wkom it may concern:

Be known that I, CLEMENT J. JUNoERs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Streator, in the county of Lasalle and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Wire-Glass, of which the following is' a specification.

This invention 'relatesxto an improved method of making wire glass.

Among themain objectsof the invention are to provide a process whereby so-called wire glass may be made by a novel singlepour method and whereby a new product will result which Will-be free from the ob iectionable characteristics; heretofore inherent to wire glass made by any of the 'single-ppurdprocesses heretofore known, and as contra lstinguished from such earlier products will be smooth surfaced, clear, brilliant, of uniform undistorted formation, and will have the wire fabric placed therein so accurately and uniformly that the product will be entirely suitable for polishing and for other purposes to which high grade wire glass is. adapted; to lessen the operations, the time of operations and the number of persons employed in performing such operations in rolling out the glass, therebyvery materially economizing in cost; and to produce an article which while being fully the equal of the best so-called sandwich glass as regards uniformity of structure, olearness,

brilliancy, etc., is at the same time made from'a'smgle casting or pourof, glass rolled out as a sin le sheet, and therefore possesses.

greater uni ormity of mass tl rroughout than is possible where, as infthe sandwich processes, the completed sheet is formed of two separately poured and separately rolled half sheets superposed and welded together.

The invention consists in thematters hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention will be readily understood from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof,- and in whichis illustrated suitable and'novel apparatus for carrying out the process.

In said drawings Figure V1 shows in longitudinal vertical section a'casting bed, a set of rolls and other accessories for carrying out the process; Fig. 2 is a vertical cross sectionalfview taken rn linc 2-2 of- Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus shown section in-Fig. 1; Figs. 4 and-5 are longitudinal axial sections of one of the forming rolls and one of the embedding rolls, respectively; the castin bed being also shown in section in Fig. 4; ig. 6 is an enlarged detail of a portlon of the embedding roll, shown partly lnfaxial section and partly in side elevation.

The general method of making wirev glass Q in accordance with the-single-pour processes heretofore m use, and the defects inherent in such glass, are set. forth with substantial accurac 1n] Reissue. Patent No. 12,4:4z3,

issued anuary'30, 1906, to the administrator of E. C; Schrnertz, deceased ;-sai,d description being found immediately, following the statement of invention of that atent. Schmertz reissue referredflto a so describes one of the so-called sandwich processes of making wire glass asthe subject-matter of that reissue Wire lass of the highest quality is now being hargely made substantially in accordance with my previous Letters Patent No. 867,510, dated October 1, 1907; this being also. a sandwich process.

In accordance with'my present invention-'1 depart from the sandwich process, which. is now generally understood as being the only process whereby a polishable glass can be produced, and, revertingv back to the single pour method, have so changed and improved such singleour. method as to produce wire glass not in erior to that which is produced by the best sandwich processes of the present day, and in some respects at least, superior. Amon the difficulties which have prevented the successful making of polishable wire glass by the single-pour process are the following: the distortion of the wire mesh and uneven placing of it in the finished product; the scarring of the top. surface by the embedding roll and mcslies'of the wire, and failure of the following or finishing roll to eliminatethese scars; the presence of a product; the presence of streaks both of discoloration .and of bubbles visible in the.

finished roduct; the limitation in size of sheets w ich it was practicable tomake under the old sin le-pour processes; to presence of ribs de ning the shapesof the meshes of wire producing so-called caramel glass and interfering with the cutting of the glass and general lack of unlformity of structure and clearness.

The

In carrying out my present process, I usually employ an ordinary cast-ing bed or table l, which is preferably water-cooled, and which bed may be either stationary, with the rolls arranged to travel bodily thereov'er, or better, the table may be arranged to travel. while the rolls are held against bodily traversing movement in a suitable frame in which they are journaled. 4

I employ a leading roll 2, which is supported at such height above the bed. of the table as to spread the glass out into a sheet 3 of approximately the same thickness as the finished sheet. This leading roll may be arranged to travel on tracks 4, or the rolls may be provided with collars or ribsin place of the tracks, which is also a well-known expedient. In either event, the lower pe riphery of the roll is supported parallel with and above 'the table at a distance equal to the thickness of the sheet to be made.

One of the important features of the present invention, is to employ such means of rolling out the sheet, ,of embedding the wire mesh into the sheet and of subsequently smoothin the sheet, that there is no substantial isplacement or stirring action of any portion of the sheet after it has once been given its initial form. -That is to say, from the instant the sheet emerges from beneath the leading roll, which determines its thickness, itssubsequent treatment is such that the sheet is not substantially disturbed, or its constituent parts displaced or torhired; the upper surface of the sheet being, of course, divided both by the embedding flanges which press the wire into the sheet and by the meshes of the wire itself, but such division being effected in suchway that the sheet as a whole remains undisturbed and its top surface is only momentarily opened to receive the wire and im mediately closed upon the latter.

I. have discovered that one of the'most important reasons of'failure to successfully make high quality; Wire glass by the prior art single-pour processes was due to the use of such methods and apparatuses resulted in re-rolling and re-dlstributi g the constituent parts of the sheet, either during the placing of the wire mesh therein or during the healing or smoothing out rolling, and usually during both'of these operations. A

prime reason for failures of success hereto-.

fore has been, I think, due to the failure to take into account the fact that as soon as the pour of glass is dumped upon the table. and especially when it has been spread out across the table, the bed expands as to its upper surface, under the influenceof the .heat, and assumes a distinctly crowning shape in transverse section. This crowning of the table commences, of course, assoon as the glass is dumped, but increases very materially and continuously during the en- -bed of the table have been thrown out of parallelism by the expansive effect described,

' but inasmuch as the leading roll passes over the bed of the table as fast as the ball of glass advances and almost immediately after the pour of glass encounters the table, it follows that the crowning of the table beneath said .leading roll is comparatively slight. However, from the instant the ball of glass is spread into contact with the surface of the bed that part of the bed commences to expand and crown, and by the time the following roll passes over any given part of the sheet the table has crowned sufiiciently' so that if the second roll be a smooth roll and straight it will re-roll and re-form the sheet, making it substantially thinner at'the middle than at the edges. The surplus glass in thecentral portion of the sheet commences to accumulate in advance of the second roll, and this accumulation increases as the roll progresses, so that almost immediately there is a sufficient accumulation ahead of the following roll to effect a disastrous circulating movement of the glass and more or less of a re-distribution and re-rolling of the same. In carrying into effect the present invention, I so shape and form the rolls that this re-rolling and torturing efi'ect upon the sheet is obviated. "That is to say, describing a preferred apparatus, I make the leading roll 2 slightly concave in axial section, and I make v the embedding and forming rolls also concave, preferably increasingly so, so that the curvature in longitudinal section of the periphery of each roll compensates for the crowning of the bed under the casting operation, and a sheet of glass is produced of substantially uniform thickness throughout, and, what is more important, all those rolls which follow the leading or spreading roll act upon the sheet of glass without substan tially displacing or re -shaping its structiu'e.

The second roll 5 is, in the apparatus shown, the embeddin roll, and I make the disks (3, the peripheries of which constitute the embedding flanges, of succeedingly smaller diameter from each end toward the center of the roll, and also make the peripheries'of said disks of peculiar quality, of peculiar shape in cross section, and of such dimensions and so spaced apart as to bear a definite or approximately definite relation to the thickness of sheet to be formed. Describ ing said embedding roll more specifically, its ends are supported to roll upon ,the trucks 4, the diameter of the rolling portion being such as to bring the edges or extreme- IOU meant:-

peripheries of embedding disks 6 to with n a distance from the-surface of the table equal to. about one-half of-the thickness of the sheet of glass. As shown more particularly in Figs, and 6, the several'disks 6 are mou nted upon a roll proper 7 and spaced apartat regular distances by'means of re movable collars 8. The disks are either a formed of some dense orfine. grained metal,

19 such as steel or fine iron, or else, if, formedof coarser metal, are 'platedowith nickel or other suitable metal which will .form a smooth dense surface upon the acting edges ofthe disks. Furthermore, in thepreferred' of these disks radial depth of these flanges be ample permit them to cut through the top half-0 the sheet without pushing the molten metal figure the wire. It is important that Hz;

ahead of the roll wave-fashion. That is to say, there must beample space between the flanges to allow the glass, which is necessarily displaced to some extent by the-wentrance of thewedge-shapedflanges therein, to sim ly rise and then flow back as the embed ing roll passeson, without any cons'iderable forward movement. Obviously the; thinner the flanges are thebetter so far as this particular object is concerned, but it must be taken into account that the flanges must have such thickness thatthey'will not be'overheated during their passage through the glass, because the instant the ,metal becomes overheated the glass sticks to it, and

embedding roll and produce one of the very fiects. whichit is. important to avoid. The

object of making the bevel; all at one side,

instead of partly upon each.. Side', 'isto' facilitate thecIosingIiIip of the cuts formed. in

the glass by these nges. I have found that with a cut or kerf -produced by afflange of.

this shape the gash .closes up "progressively upwardly, and without entrapping :gas', whereas if the bevel be partly oneach side and the total wed'g'e width-or sharpness of inclination of the flange be the same, there is a greater tendency of the sides of the gash to flow together ator near'the surface of the plate before the bottomv of the cut is closed,

thus entrapping the gas, which is immediately expanded by the heat of the glass into bubbles, which remain in the finished sheet.

In practice I have found that for rolling which, as to itsgperiphery or "been saiditwill he obvious-that ifthedi'sks [were not thus made ofsmaller diameter toshould be placed in aslclose proximity to the this would, of course, result in'-- the--sheet being drawn up wave-fashion in ,rear' ofxthe the latter, and preferably is made slightly :more'concave in axial-section than the em- 7, bedding rolls Like' the leading-roll, ita ia' from 'the bottom or deepestpart' of the cut By forming'itof pr bevel should be not greater than one-half inch. a In order to make half inch glass, however, such as is generally used for polishing,

the disksor embedding fla es should spaced about one and oneourth inches apart, andi the radial depth is preferably somewhat more than 'th'ree-eighths inch.

[The same setj of disks may be successfully; I used for either quarter or half. inch glass by simply using-a diflz'erent set-of spacing collars 8 for each difierent thickness-of glass. It is to be particularly-.noted that these disks are made of succeeding smaller diameter from each end' of theroll-toward the center, so as to producean-embedd' roll greatest diameter, is slightly concave in axial section; the

concavity being, of course, in the form of aregular curve; From what has-heretofore ward the center, the displacing action would begreatly augmented throu hout th central 'portion'of the roll, and,

hermore, the wire mesh instead: of, being placed 'uig0 distant from the surface throughout the "ll 7 width of ..'the sheetqwould. approach much closer to the bot surface-in .the central portions of the sh than along the edges; Both of these-.objec'tions-are, of course, se-

rious but are eflectively .-obvi ated by the adoption of the means described. v

' It is important. that the roll wire netting is fed :beneath this ro ll. Im

mediately following'thecmbeddingroll, and placed as near thereto as'practicab e without interference of the rolls, is arranged the healing or smoothing roll 12. This roll is,

or may be, substantially likethe leading roll 2, except that it, is made more concave than sup rted with its periphery above the bed. a distance substantlally equalto the thickness of theshee't of glass, and it is of great importance that this rollshould be so'shaped and "so adjusted, and so rotated, that there shall be no substantial accumulation of glass in advance of it. as it rolls over thescored surface produced by the embedding roll.

' r concav1ty,- and' ad-" justing it nicely as to eight above. the'table, I find that this roll will close andhe'al thecuts formed by the embedding roll perfectly, and leave the surface of the glass practical y smooth riding rollers, as 13, preferably 130 no I uniform although" usually not perfectly spaced at some distance in rear of the smoothing roll pro 12. These riding rollers rest with their full weight upon the these ro'l surface of the glass. That is tosay, theydo not travel u'pon tracks or collars but ride wholly u the glass. The peripheries of are made concave and substan: tially of the same degree of concavity as the smoothing1 roll. That is to say, the concavity is suc that theii' peripheries ride Lrith approximately equa pressure throu g out the width of the sheet of glass. Of course,

in the case of making glass which is to be subsequently polished by grinding the riding rolls'ma be dispensed with.

Another eature of the apparatus which contributes-to the success ofthe process is to adjust and control the rate of the rotation or onward rolling glass, so that their tendency to displace the lass longitudinally by contact with its sur-v ace is minimized to the greatest possible degree. If either of these rolls has a pc- 4 which thebed is p ripheral greater than the speed at assing beneath it, relatively then the roll tends to draw through the pass too much lass, thus producing a surplus and wavee effect in rear of the roll, which is disastrous to good results. On the contrary, if the roll-be rotating at a.peripheral speed which is too slow as compared with the onward movement of the table, it will produce a dragging 'efieot and fimslnng' rolls, are not less important. In addition to.a tendency to displace the glass longitudinally, either forwardly or rearwardly, ,there is always a tendency to buckle the wire netting in case the embedding roll is rotating too rapidly, or to dis-.

" tort the meshes andistretch them out in case itbe rotating too slowly. Accordingly I provide racks 14 along each side 'of the bed, and upon each of the several rolls provide gears which intermesh with these racks, and

I further provide means for adjusting the drive between each roll and the rack so that I may secure the proper peri heral speed with-great exactness. -I pre or to use a series ofcgears graded in size for each of the several; rolls, substituting one pair for another in adjusting each roll until I get the correct peripheral speed, or yery nearly that. To provide for further slight variations or adjustments of the peripheral speed, Imake the rack adjustable as to height; its teeth being so shaped that by raising or lowering e movement of the 5 several rolls relatively to the surface of the edge to edge."

the rack bodil we itch line engagement Etween rack aiid gea s will be changed and e drawings, 15, 16, 17 and 18 designate the of the leading roll, the embedding roll, the healing rol and the riding roll, respectively. The means of adjusting. the rack vertically are indicated at 19, consisting of threaded holes'in the frame and tap bolts extending through such holes and engaging the under sides of the racks.

Another important feature of'the invention resides in providing adequate and reliable means for controlling the feeding in of the wire mesh. To this ,end the wire is arranged to pass from any suitable source of supply, as for example a table-like chute 20, whereon it is initially laid in suitable lengths, to and through apair of tension rollers 21, 22, thence past and in peripheral contact with a stretching out roll 23 of special construction, and thence beneath the embedding roll. The rolls 21, 22-, have cylindric peripheries and are journaled parallel with each other; the lower roll being mount-. ed in substantially fixed journals 24 and the upper roll havingits trunnions 25 confined in forks 26 which are of such depth as to let the periphery of the roll ride with its full weight upon the lower roll. It follows, therefore, that when the wire is passed between these rolls the weight of the upper roll produces a tension upon the wire, and this-tension may be increased by placing added weights or springs upon the extended trunnions of the upper roll.

The stretching roll23 is journaled in fixed journals, as indicated at 27, and its periphery is formed into two oppositely pitched prominent screw-threaded or spirally cor rugated portions, as 23', 23", each of which covers one-half the length of the roll, so that the two meet at the center of the latter.

accordingly adjusted. In the The wire in being drawn past this stretching I ence to the direction of rotation is to'constantly spread the wire and stretch it from Another novel feature of the apparatus is the PIOVlSlOn of a pair of supporting bars 28, 29, mountedparallel with and in advance of the leadmg roll in such position that they together form' a cradle upon which the ladle 30 may be rested, and slid back and forth while pouring. The use of this kind of a supportfor the ladle enables the workman to pour out the metal gradually and to con- 'tinue the pouring throughout a substantial part of the rolling operation; the ladle being so manipulated, and slid back and forth repeatedly while pouring, as to distribute and maintain a moderate-sup 1y of glass extending across the width o the sheet. There not in contact with so large a mass of molten 1 glass at any time and consequently is not heated tothe same degreeor extent, and the workman is able to perform his work much more accurately and easily than is the 'case where the workmen must support. the ladle during the emptying of the same by sheer strength.

The operation of rolling the glass has been clearly indicated in connection with the foregoing description, but ma be briefly re-' capitulated as follows: Theta le being in its initial position and thesheet of fabric in place upon the chute and inserted in the controlling devices, the workmen bring the ladleful of glass and start the pour just in front. of the leading roll. The table is now started, and as'the leading end. of the sheet of glass approaches the embedding roll the workman startsthe wire netting down to meet the surface of the sheet, and the sheet and netting pass together beneath the em-' bedding roll, the latter pressing. the wire into the glass in'themanner hereinbefore de scribed. The continued advance'of the table brin the sheet of glass with the mesh embedded therein beneath the smoothing or V healing roll, which smooths out the openings or cuts formed by the embeddin flanges and the meshes of the wire, and the s eet in pass ing beneath the riding-roll or rolls is further '40 smoothed and made-uniform. If the rolls are properly adjusted, .the ffirst smoothing or healing roll will completely close the cuts in the upper. half of the sheet 'of glass, 's'o that the subsequent rolls serve only to render somewhat more smooth and uniform the surface. Preferably during the chief part of 'the rolling out. operation, the workmen manipulating the ladle will continue to pour out the glass gradually, thus maintaining a s in advance of the leading roll;

It is important that the operation of rolling be performed rapidly, .and this] is especially important in the case of making so-called thin wire glass; 6. glass of 1 inch thickness-or thereabout. When rolling half-inch glass, 7 which is the thickness usually employed for polishing.- it is, of course, not so important that the rolling operation be rapid, andit may be successfully carried out at a rate of speed not greater than that heretofore commonly employed. It is also important, as hereinbefore pointed out, that the glass be very fluid,

i. e. hot, so that the skin formed by the moderate and substantially uniform supply.

- leading"roll will-be extremely tender and the meshes of the wire will readily break understood as. implying that it essential that the rolls follow each other in close succession or that:extraordi nary speed 'of manipulation and operation is es- -through this skin. and into the body of the glass without substantial distortion of the meshes.

. By the foregoing, I donot WlSll to be sential. On the contrary, the possibilities r of with modern apparatus are such that the apparatus may be. so organized as not to take advantage of the hig'est speed of operation and still carry out my process successfully. 4

The method herein claimed is not limited to being carried out by .the particular apparatus'shown in this application,

I claim as my invention:

1. An improved single-pour process of making wire glass, which consists in rolling outa single-thick sheet, concurrently,

but in sequence to the spreading of the sheet, pressing into one side thereof a sheet of wire netting and disposing the same approximately-mid-thickness of the glass and in substantially undeviating parallelism with, the surfaces thereof, progressively pressing the wire inset sheet between a roller-and an opposedsurface, the acting -portions of which pressing devices are maintained-substantially in accurate parallelisni .with each-other and 'at' a distance apart substantially the mean thickness of the sheet being acted upon, whereby the side of the sheet opposite' that through which the wire is inserted and the wire itself;

remain practically undisturbed by saidpre$ing Operation; and continuing such progressive formation of the sheet until completed.

2. The improvement in the art of makingwire glass, which consists in rolling out a single-thick sheet, progressively, "but in sequence tothe spreading of the sheet,

insetting a sheet of wire netting throughone side of the. sheet and disposing it in a substantially undeviating plane remote from, and parallel with, the surfaces of the and progressively presssheet between forming arallel with each other,

spaced and maintained apart a distance just equal to the mean thickness of the pre-formed sheet and thereby restoring the integrity of that side of the sheet through which the. wire is inset," and continuing theoperation progressively until the sheetis, formed.

3. An improved single-pour process 0 making wire glass, consisting in spreading a sheet of molten, glass on a normally fiat surfaoe,.progressively, but in sequence to the spreading of the sheet, pressing'a sheet of wire netting into one side of the sheet and placing it in substantially undeviating parallelism with the top and bottom. surfaces of thesheet, and as the insetting of the wire proceeds pressing the wire inset sheet between progressively-acting forming surfaces whose acting portions are, during the 'moment of pressing contact with the sheet, maintained accurately parallel despite the distorting action of the heat from the sheet of glass, and the pass between which forming surfaces is during such pressing operation maintained of awidth substantially equal to'themean thickness of said preformed sheet, whereby the in-.

-wire netting, and continuing such forming and wire insetting process progressively un- 20 til the sheet is completed. 7

CLEMENT J. JUNGERS.

.Witnesses:

1 ALBERT H. GRAVES,

EmLm ROBE! 

